Art that makes you do a double take: Roni Horn’s mesmerising sculptures in Hong Kong
- American artist’s glass sculptures almost demand that you stand still and figure out what you are seeing – quite a feat in an age of mass attention deficiency
- She worries that, in the smartphone age, ‘People’s minds have splintered to the point that they can’t remember from one second to another’
American artist Roni Horn has something akin to an illusionist’s ability to make you do a double take, stand still and figure out what it is you are actually seeing, which is quite a feat in an age of mass attention deficiency. It’s something evident in her new show in Hong Kong, a survey of her work that spans four decades.
The works on display exemplify the theme of androgyny, and show the diversity of materials that she works with.
Horn has said in the past that her gender-neutral first name gave her the sense from a young age that her identity was fluid. She has always resisted being pinned down by gender or sexuality, though she doesn’t hide the fact that she is in a relationship with a woman and her dapper dress style is what some would call androgynous, and worn with a swagger.
The androgyny in her art is not just about gender issues and who she is, she says. It is about the multiplicity of identity, as symbolised by the mesmerising blue glass sculptures showing at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Central.
She first exhibited similar glass works in 2001, a week after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. “I had just got the technology to make glass the way I wanted, which was this [fluid-like] form. People keep asking me what’s inside. They think it’s water and you cannot convince them otherwise,” she says.
